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“Because he was your father’s attorney.”
She almost flinched at the mention of her father, and some of the fight went out of her. “What else do you know about m-my…” she swallowed hard, looking suddenly vulnerable “…my father?”
“Quite a lot, now that you bring it up.” He wondered why she’d had so much trouble with the word father. “I grew up here and I’ve watched the Bar K…go through a lot of changes. If there’s anything I can do to help you while you’re here—”
“You make it sound like I’m on a vacation,” she said. “I’m here to stay.”
He nodded, pleased to hear it. “That’s fine by me, but…things may not be exactly what you expect. All I’m saying is that if I can help, I’ll be glad to do it. Any questions?”
She looked almost panicky for a moment, but a shaky breath seemed to steady her. “This isn’t a good time. Look, Jack, I don’t mean to seem unfriendly but I don’t have the faintest idea who you are and I’m in no mood for company, anyway.”
She remembered his name. That was a good omen. “Jack Burke, of the XOX Ranch, at your service.” He put out his hand, hoping for a shake so he could touch her.
She ignored his outstretched hand. Her blank look said that the next time they met she probably wouldn’t even remember him. “Thanks for your interest, but I have business to attend to. If you’ll excuse me…”
What if he wouldn’t? She didn’t wait to find out, just wheeled and walked into the Snake-oil Building. For a long moment, Jack stood on the sidewalk looking after her, thinking she might be as prickly as her old man.
But a whole helluva lot easier on the eyes.
BACK IN THE CAFÉ AGAIN, Dani sat down hard on the booth seat and looked at her startled siblings and grandmother. “He wasn’t in,” she said.
“The lawyer?”
Dani nodded. “His secretary gave me a set of keys and wished me luck. I got the feeling she thought I’d need it.”
Toni picked up a french fry. “At least you didn’t waste the walk.”
“I needed the fresh air to clear my head.” Not that it had succeeded. “I…” She saw the tall cowboy—Jack something or other, he’d said—at the counter again and she quickly turned her gaze away. The café had only emptied out a little. “I’m getting a funny feeling about this.”
Toni and Niki exchanged glances. “Funny how?” Toni asked.
“Funny…like the ranch isn’t all we’re expecting it to be.”
Granny leaned forward and patted her granddaughter’s hand. “Don’t be negative, dear. I’m sure it’s wonderful.”
“That’s right.” Niki nodded firmly. “We saw the brochures and brochures don’t lie.”
Dani had thought at the time that the brochures looked at least thirty years old, but swept up in the excitement, hadn’t mentioned that little qualm. “I’m sure you’re right.” She sighed. “It’s just that this has been a long hard trip and I’m tired. You all must be, too.”
Toni laughed. “Why should we be tired when you did ninety percent of the driving? Once we get to the ranch, you deserve a nice long rest, Dani.”
“We all do.” Somehow Dani didn’t think any of them would get much rest, but she wouldn’t rain on their parade. “Why don’t I pay the check and we can get out of here? Until we see the place, we won’t know what we’re talking about.”
“Uhh…”
“Uhh…what?”
Again those surreptitious glances, and Granny said, “It’s a little complicated—the directions, I mean. There are two ways, the long way and the short way. The long way is complicated, but the short way is practically a secret, from what the lady who runs this place told us.”
“Are you saying we need better directions?”
“Or a guide,” Toni said, grinning. “Come on, Dani, cheer up! We’re almost there—Gone To Texas! The promised land. Remember?”
“I remember.” Dani told herself she was being ridiculous, but ever since that brief conversation with the cowboy, she’d had the oddest feeling that something wasn’t quite right at the Bar K. “I’m just being silly,” she added. “Stay here while I pay the bill and get decent directions.”
Rising, she picked up the check and took the few steps to the cash register. She handed it to the pleasant-faced woman behind the counter, along with a twenty dollar bill.
The woman smiled and shook her head. “It’s already taken care of,” she said.
Dani frowned and glanced at the table. All three women shrugged; none of them had paid the check. “I don’t understand,” she said. “None of us—”
“Jack took care of it,” the woman announced. “Y’all come back, hear?”
Jack. The cowboy. This couldn’t go on. Dani marched up to where he sat at the counter, grinning.
She was steaming. “Look,” she said shortly, “I can’t let you do that. Tell me how much our bill was and I’ll…” She fumbled her wallet out of the pocket of her jacket, hoping she’d have the exact change.
He shook his head. “My pleasure,” he said.
“Dammit, Jack, you can’t—”
“It’s done. Short of making a scene, there’s not much you can do about it.” His calm, almost patronizing expression didn’t waver.
Dani gritted her teeth and took a deep breath. He was right, but how dare he put her in this corner? “Okay,” she muttered, “you win this one. Thank you very much, but don’t you ever do this again.”
“No, ma’am, I sure won’t.” Clear hazel eyes crinkled at the corners. “Anything else I can do for you?”
“There certainly—is.”
His grin widened. “Just name it.”
“Can you give me directions to the Bar K? My family seems to think it’s at the end of a labyrinth or something.”
“Umm, not too many labyrinths in Texas that I know of. It is a little tricky to find if you don’t know your way around, though.”
“You can draw me a map.”
“I can do better than that.” He rose from the stool.
“There is nothing better than that,” she flared. “Wait. Grandma always has paper and pencil in her purse.”
“Don’t bother.”
“But—”
“I’ll lead you there.”
“I don’t want you to show me the way,” she objected in alarm. She really hated how he was pushing in, mostly because she found him so damned attractive.
“Yes, you do.”
“Don’t tell me what I want!”
“Dani,” he said in that lazy drawl, “you do, you just don’t know it yet. Trust me on this—when you get your first look at the Bar K, you’ll be damned glad to have me around.”
Dani’s stomach dropped to her knees and she could only stand in dumb alarm while he waltzed around her to introduce himself to her family. That lump of dread had just turned into a boulder.
2
KEEPING JACK’S PICKUP in sight, Dani drove down dirt roads, through miniforests, over hills, until suddenly the Bar K Dude Ranch lay spread out before them.
The ramshackle Bar K. A sudden silence fell, and then from the back seat of the Jeep, Toni uttered a faint, “Oh, dear.”
A tight-lipped Dani braked in a large gravel parking lot in front of the ranch house. To the right lay several outbuildings and a barn; to the left a number of log cabins and a swimming pool, empty and sad in the March sunshine.
The first word that leaped into her head was paint. The Bar K was in dire need of paint, preferably many coats of it. The house itself, although a pleasant sprawl with a wide front porch running the entire length of the building, looked shabby and unloved. The outbuildings were equally neglected and the barn was practically gothic.
Granny cleared her throat. “You girls will be amazed at what a little elbow grease will do for this place,” she announced in a determinedly cheerful tone.
“But the brochure…!” Niki wailed.
Dani opened her car door. “It’ll look like the brochure again,” she said grimly. “I’m afraid it’ll take more than elbow grease, though.”
“Whatever it takes,” Toni said, “we’ll see it gets it. We’re not afraid of a little hard work.”
“Or a lot, for that matter.” Dani climbed out and stretched, trying not to give in to panic when she thought of the state of their bank account.
The road from Elk Tooth, Montana, to Hard Knox, Texas, had been a long one. Without waiting for the rest of them, she hurried around to open the door to the trailer and back Sundance out. By the time that was accomplished, everyone had alighted and Jack had joined them.
His expression, Dani thought, was evasive, to say the least.
“So what do you think?” he inquired, his tone guarded.
“Uhh…” Toni licked her lips. “It’s a little more…run-down than I expected.”
He nodded. “That’s true, but the underlying structure is still strong. After Miss Elsie died, Wil did kind of let things go—” He stopped short. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound critical of your father.”
“Feel free,” Dani invited. Tossing the rope lead over the horse’s neck, she grabbed a hunk of mane and swung up. After settling herself firmly on the bare speckled back, she turned the horse and tightened her knees to urge him forward.
They took off toward the trees at a slow lope, Dani reveling in the rippling muscles between her thighs. All that pent-up power raised her spirits considerably.
So did the landscape. All her life she’d heard about the Texas Hill Country, and she wasn’t disappointed. These rolling hills would be beautiful in the full flower of spring. So the buildings were not in the best of shape, the land was wonderful. What had she expected, the moon?
Not exactly expected. More like wanted.
Reining Sundance around, she supposed she’d been naive to believe that brochure. Still, the place was full of potential. It had been successful in the past and could be again. It all depended upon how badly they wanted it.
Dani wanted it more than anything in the world.
With a yell, she let out the tight rein she’d been holding on the Appaloosa’s halter and he shot forward in a dead run. Wind whipped Dani’s hair away from her face and she felt her spirits rise with every pounding hoofbeat.
This would work. She’d make it work. Nothing would stand in her way, not even the dangerously appealing cowboy waiting beside the barn.
DAMN, THE WOMAN COULD ride.
Jack watched the spotted horse sit back on his haunches in a sliding stop. Even bareback and guided only by a halter rope, the animal was under perfect control.
Dani jumped to the ground, her cheeks red and her eyes sparkling. He’d thought she was good-looking before, but he hadn’t seen anything. This was the real Dani Keene, he knew instinctively, not that suspicious woman who’d cut him off back in town.
By the time she reached him, though, the joy had been replaced by caution. “This is beautiful country,” she said, glancing around. “Sure, the ranch itself needs work, but it’ll be worth it.”
“I wondered if you’d see that.” He patted the nose of the curious Appaloosa. “You got a real nice horse here.”
Her smile revealed genuine pleasure. “He sure is. I raised him from a colt and trained him myself. We suit each other just fine.”
“The corral’s empty. You can put him in there.”
She frowned. “Don’t we have any stock at all?”
“Some. Dobe can tell us how much.”
“Dobe?”
“Dobe Whittaker. He’s kinda the caretaker, you could say. He’s around here some—”
“I’m where I’m s’posed to be.” A man stepped from the deep shadows of the open barn door. Looking as old as the hills, he wore cowboy clothes softened by age. The stamp of the West was in far-seeing blue eyes and a lined, leathery face partially concealed by a snowy beard and trailing mustache.
“Howdy, ma’am.” He doffed his hat. “I’m Dobe Whittaker. At the moment you got a dozen horses and a small herd of longhorns and that’s just about it.”
“Dobe.” She smiled, genuinely pleased to meet him. “I’m Dani Keene. My sisters and grandmother are back at the house.”
“Seen ’em go in.” Without waiting for a response, Dobe wheeled back into the shadows.
Dani looked at Jack, her forehead furrowed. “Not very friendly, is he?”
“Depends on who he’s dealin’ with.”
“He doesn’t know me well enough to dislike me,” she pointed out.
“He knew your dad.”
She walked past him, leading the horse toward the corral. “If he disliked my father so much, why is he looking out for things?”
“Because of loyalty to Miss Elsie.” Jack was still cautious about criticizing Wil Keene.
“I see.” She said it so grimly that Jack thought maybe she did see.
Opening the gate, she slipped off the halter, and Sundance trotted inside. Making straight for a patch of dirt stomped and mashed by a multitude of horses before him, he lowered himself and rolled.
